


A New Day's Coming

by badbucky



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon? I dont know her, Family, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Internalized Homophobia, Minor Violence, Protective Clint Barton, harley keener is lowkey adopted by clint ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-16 01:56:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19308295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badbucky/pseuds/badbucky
Summary: The Barton family really loves and cares about Harley Keener.





	A New Day's Coming

**Author's Note:**

  * For [luciimariiellii](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luciimariiellii/gifts).



> This isn't very good, but I really wanted to get it posted on Cii's actual birthday and I didn't have more time to write on it - I hope it's not too disappointing.

“If Kirby swallowed Harley, what special power would he get?” Cooper asked the question as if it were a riddle with a real answer, and Clint shook his head at the conversational topic between his children.

 

“Depression and internalized homophobia?” Lila suggested.

 

“What’s that?” Nate piped up curiously.

 

“Kids, don’t say things like that,” he tried, only for Lila to answer him with an exasperated sigh.

 

“You don’t understand,  _ dad, _ it’s gen z humor. Besides, Harley would’ve laughed!” She defended herself, and Nate tugged on Clint’s sleeve.

 

“Daddy, what does it mean?” He pouted.

 

Clint Barton had not been prepared to answer such a question at 8 in the evening, when Laura had driven into town for her weekly yoga classes and left him in charge of the kids. None of the parenting books he had read could help him explain the term  _ internalized homophobia  _ to a six-year-old.

 

“You know how your cousin Harley is a boy who likes boys?” He crouched down in front of the youngest child, unsure if Nate even remembered that. He had been four when it had first been brought up, but Nate nodded his head empathetically anyway.

 

“Uh-huh, and so does cousin Peter! But he likes girls, too!”

 

“Yeah. Well, some people think that it’s  _ wrong.  _ Even though Harley knows it isn’t wrong, sometimes he might feel bad inside,” Clint began, noticing that the other kids had gone quiet. “So because people have told him so many times that it’s bad, he believes it a little bit now, but only inside of himself.” 

 

“Harley feels bad inside?” Nate looked upset at that, so Clint sighed, wrapping his arms around the little boy.

 

“Sometimes. But the important part is that he  _ isn’t _ bad, and that we need to make sure he knows that. Okay?”

 

“Okay.”

 

\---

 

Harley Keener let his feet dangle over the side of the Stark Tower. The world around him tonight seemed almost silent, an unusual experience considering the fact that he was currently in the middle of New York. The noise of the cars passing by beneath his feet was drowned out by his own ragged breaths, and his hands were shaking as he wondered why he kept coming up here: why he kept sitting on the edge of the tallest building when he was terrified of heights. 

 

Lila Barton had once pointed out that it was unhealthy for him to keep going back; that it was a weird and twisted kind of self-harm, that he shouldn’t do this on purpose.  _ But you deserve it _ , he reminded himself, feeling bile rising in his stomach.

 

He was thinking about his mother. Thinking about her raging, red face and the bright green bottles of beer littering their living room. He was thinking about his little sister and her frightened face every time their mother gripped his arm a little too tight, every time her rough behavior left bruises on his skin. 

 

He thought about when he had come out. It wasn’t like he had done it on purpose. A group of jocks had shown up outside of his door and beat him up, and when his mother found out, she wanted to know  _ why.  _ Exhausted and hurting all over, he had blurted out that they hated gays. 

 

His mother had scowled in disgust and left him on the floor. Sometimes he thought that maybe he understood why.

 

The sound of a siren made him zone back in, and he clambered backwards until he was far enough from the edge to feel safe. He probably should get back inside before JARVIS alerted someone about his location. 

 

\---

 

“Harley?” Nate’s voice was high pitched as he looked up at the taller boy. The Barton family had come to visit everyone at the Stark tower for the weekend, and while Harley was happy to see them, he felt… Empty inside. Like he couldn’t be the happy boy that they knew and missed.

 

“Hey, Nate,” he greeted, bending down to Nathaniel's level. He hadn’t noticed it before, but now that he was crouching down right in front of the little boy, he could see that he looked  _ upset. _ “What’s wrong, peanut?”

 

“Don’t feel bad inside,” the boy spoke with a serious authority that only Laura Barton could have taught him. While the words startled him at first, Harley couldn’t help but soften as he waited for the boy to continue. “I like boys too but I don’t feel bad in here.” As he spoke the last words, his small hand landed on Harley’s chest - to be fair, it wasn’t exactly where his heart would be, but it was close enough that Harley couldn’t help but feel a little proud.

 

“You think I feel bad inside because I like boys?” He asked.

 

“That’s what my daddy says. He says to say you’re not bad inside!” Before Harley even got to think of an answer, the door behind them opened, revealing Clint Barton. He was holding two Starbucks coffees, one in each hand, and offered an apologetic smile when he noticed the way Nate was practically  _ climbing  _ into Harley’s lap.

 

“Got something for you, Keener,” he sat down one of the cups next to Harley, then lowered himself to sit on the floor with the two boys. “Did you tell Harley what you wanted to say, stump?”

 

The little boy nodded, closing his eyes and resting his head against the older boys chest. Clint melted a little bit inside, wondering just  _ when  _ he became  _ this _ soft-hearted. If Laura had been there, she would have probably taken a million pictures already.

 

“Was it Lila?” Harley asked after a few minutes of silence. “Who brought it up, I mean.”

 

“Yeah. It was an off-hand comment, really, but you know the little guy has big ears. Let me tell you, as a mostly straight man, having to explain internalized homophobia to a child is… Difficult.”

 

“Mostly straight?” Harley quirked an eyebrow teasingly, earning a heatless glare from Clint.

 

“You haven’t unlocked that backstory just yet, Keener,” Clint cracked a smile, and Harley felt at home. He wasn’t sure when or how it had happened, but somewhere along the way, the Barton family had become his family, too. 

 

“Thanks, uncle Clint.”

 

“For what?” 

 

_ “ _ Everything _.” _

 


End file.
